title: Hematopoietic cell transplantation with autologous cord blood in patients with severe aplastic anemia: an opportunity to revisit the controversy regarding cord blood banking for private use.
abstract: The controversy surrounding private banking of umbilical cord blood units (CBU), as a safeguard against future malignancy or other life-threatening conditions, raises many questions in pediatric clinical practice. Recent favorable experiences with autologous transplantation for severe aplastic anemia using privately stored CBU, suggested a possible utility. While private banking is difficult to justify statistically or empirically, there may exist rare cases where autologous transplant of stored umbilical CBU could be beneficial. The reality of privately banked CBU and the possibility for future discovery of additional indications for autologous cord blood transplant, motivated us to re-examine our attitudes towards private cord blood banking.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, City of Hope, Duarte, California, USA. jrosenthal@coh.org
authors.forename: Joseph
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rosenthal
authors.forename: Ann E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Woolfrey
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pawlowska
authors.forename: Sandra H
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.forename: Frederick
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Appelbaum
authors.forename: Stephen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Forman
mesh_terms: D000741:Anemia, Aplastic / Q000628:therapy*; D001771:Blood Banks / Q000600:supply & distribution*; D005312:Fetal Blood; D018380:Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation; D006801:Humans; D011332:Privatization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014182:Transplantation, Autologous